Economy in Brief: 2012

Factory sector new orders collapsed 5.2% during August following an upwardly revised 2.6% July gain. Expectations were for a 5.0% drop according to Bloomberg. Durable goods orders fell an unrevised 13.2%, due to cancelled aircraft [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance rose to 367,000 during the week ended September 29 versus a revised 363,000 during the prior week, initially reported as 359,000. Consensus expectations were for 370,000. The four-week moving [...]

Maybe 3.0% was some kind of threshold, but mortgage refinancings jumped as the rate on fixed rate, 15-year loans fell below it. The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications gained 16.6% last week (38.8% y/y) [...]

The Composite Index for the service and construction sectors from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) jumped to 55.1 last month from an unrevised 53.7 during August. The latest was the highest level since March and easily beat [...]

Employment growth remained moderate last month. September private sector payrolls rose 162,000 (2.0% y/y) as reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic Advisers. The rise [...]

The housing market continues to firm. CoreLogic reported that home prices rose 0.3% in August following a 1.4% jump during July. It was the sixth consecutive month of increase but was the weakest (by far) of the gains. Nevertheless, [...]

Car shoppers were out in-force last month. Unit sales of light motor vehicles during September gained another 3.0% m/m (13.9% y/y) to 14.96M (SAAR) according to the Autodata Corporation. The gain raised sales to their highest since [...]

Chain store sales slipped 0.3% last week (+2.4% y/y). For September sales fell 1.4% from August adding to that month's 1.8% decline. During the last ten years there has been a 72% correlation between the y/y change in chain store [...]